U507 

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THE  ENGINEER 


SCHOLAR  AND  A  GENTLEMAN. 


BY 

OBERLIN  SMITH. 


Reprinted  from  Vol.  XII.,  Transactions  of  the 
American  Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers. 


0 


ccccxv.* 


PRESIDENT'S  ANNUAL  ADDRESS 

THE  ENGINEER  AS  A  SCHOLAR  AND  A  GENTLEMAN, 

BT  OBERLIN  SMITH,  BRIDGETON,  N.  J. 

(President  1889-90.) 

Far  back  among  the  ages,  in  times  beyond  the  ken  of  His¬ 
tory’s  written  page,  the  young  world  invented  the  Engineer, 
as  the  creator  of  its  coming  civilization.  He  it  was  who  estab¬ 
lished  synthetic  methods,  and  sewed  together  fig-leaves  into  a 
mantle  which  was  a  prototype  of  our  textile  fabrics,  and,  in 
analogous  metal  patchwork,  our  steam-boilers  and  ship-hulls  of  a 
later  age — one  large  piece  made  from  many  small  ones.  He  it 
was  who,  with  sticks  and  puddled  clay,  established  the  first  order 
of  architecture — Adamesque,  if  we  may  so  call  it.  He  it  was 
who,  before  he  happened  to  think  of  a  Pullman  car  on  a  steel 
rail,  built  the  roads  and  rude  wagons  which  made  the  dawn 
of  commercial  and  social  life  possible.  He  built  the  bridges 
which  brought  tribes  and  nations  into  communion,  and  helped 
them  to  reduce  their  uncomfortable  excess  of  population  by 
making  machines  with  which  they  could  kill  each  other. 

Throughout  the  earth,  in  all  ages,  the  Engineer  has  wrested 
from  nature  her  well-kept  secrets,  and  has  made  his  non-engineer¬ 
ing  friends  comfortable  by  showing  them  how  to  deal  with  the 
material  world  around  them.  But  for  him,  as  we  now  know  him, 
practising  his  art  in  its  present  stage  of  development,  we  should 
be  set  back  a  century,  without  railways,  or  telegraphs,  or  steam- 
power  manufactories.  There  would  be  no  electric-lights,  nor 
telephones,  nor  electric-bells ;  no  sewing-machines,  nor  gas-fix¬ 
tures,  nor  modern  plumbing.  Our  farmers  would  work  with  the 
sickle  and  the  flail ;  our  sailors,  as  of  old,  would  keep  us  tossing 
months,  instead  of  days,  upon  the  sea.  Following  time  logically 
backward,  and  robbing  each  age  of  its  ministering  angel,  with  his 

*  Presented  at  tlie  Richmond  meeting  of  the  American  Society  of  Mechanical 
Engineei's  (1890),  and  forming  part  of  Volume  XII.  of  the  Transactions, 


president’s  annual  address. 


43 


acquired  knowledge  reenforcing  the  accumulated  experience  of 
his  predecessors,  we  would  soon  arrive  at  the  blackness  of  social 
darkness.  We  can  therefore  say  that  were  it  not  for  the  Engineer 
in  history,  our  fashionable  society  would  probably  all  be  modelled 
upon  that  of  Terra  del  Fuego,  where  an  entire  w’ardrobe  consists 
of  a  piece  of  fur,  held  upon  the  windward  side  of  its  wearer.  Our 
roofs  would  be  the  caves  and  trees  ;  our  food,  shellfish  and  fruits 
and  nuts — good  enough  dinner  courses  in  their  way,  but  not 
followed  by  champagne  ;  our  roads  would  be  but  foot-trodden 
paths  ;  our  bridges  fallen  logs  ;  our  weapons  stones  and  clubs. 

So  much  for  a  cursory  negative  view  of  engineering  in  the 
past.  A  positive  exposition,  in  a  concrete  form,  even  if  for  a  lim¬ 
ited  period  of  time,  might  occupy  too  many  pages  should  I  follow 
what  has  been  a  frequent  custom  in  this  Society,  and  an  obliga¬ 
tory  duty  in  one  at  least  of  our  American  sister  societies ;  namely, 
to  make  the  annual  address  a  resume  of  the  important  engineer¬ 
ing  news  of  the  world  for  the  preceding  year.  Tempting  to  an 
essayist,  and  interesting  in  itself,  as  this  field  may  be,  I  venture 
to  leave  it  to  be  harvested  by  our  members  with  their  individual 
sickles — or  should  I  say  self-binding  automatic  reapers  ? — that  I 
may  touch  upon  a  theme  which,  though  not  less  important,  is 
less  often  brought  to  your  attention.  This  I  feel  the  more 
willing  to  do,  from  the  fact  that  I  have  more  than  once  been 
requested  to  make  public  certain  views  which  I  have  at  various 
times  strongly  expressed  in  private  conversation. 

The  term  Engineer ,  the  subject  of  my  title  (and  of  the  foregoing 
brief  historical  sketch),  should,  to  my  mind,  include  in  the  per¬ 
son  described  thereby  all  the  attributes  implied  in  the  two  nouns 
which  follow.  If  it  always  had  '  been  thus  inclusive,  then  that 
higher  professional  standard  would  have  been  attained  which 
our  clients  in  the  world  outside  demand,  as  well  as  our  own 
interest  and  happiness,  and  this  essay  would  have  remained 
unwritten.  Assuming  that  the  great  majority  of  the  men  who 
are  styled,  and  who  style  themselves,  “  engineers  ”  are  really 
worthy  of  the  title — that  in  some  one  or  more  of  the  numerous 
departments  of  their  calling  they  know  how  to  get  the  better 
of  Dame  Nature,  so  to  speak,  by  designing  and  constructing  a 
good  road,  or  bridge,  or  railway,  or  canal ;  by  locating  and 
digging  a  good  mine,  and  knowing  what  comes  out  of  it ;  by 
planning  and  building  a  good  machine,  without  the  scrap-heap’s 
credit-entry  showing  more  avoirdupois  than  the  bill  of  lading ; 


44 


president’s  annual  address. 


by  taming  the  lightning  as  a  gentle  beast  of  burden  in  its  modem 
harness  of  copper  and  silk  and  iron  ;  by  creating  beautiful  build¬ 
ings  not  of  the  order  of  the  ephemera ;  the  following  questions 
arise : 

Does  this  aggregate  mass  of  engineers  attain  to  as  high  a  pro¬ 
fessional  standard  as,  all  things  considered,  our  modern  civiliza¬ 
tion  would  lead  us  to  expect  ?  Does  this  body  of  men,  Avho, 
without  question,  are  of  vastly  more  importance  to  the  world  than 
those  of  any  other  one  profession  or  trade,  stand  as  high  in  the 
estimation  of  their  fellow-men  as  their  important  position  would 
seem  to  demand?  Is  their  craft  (one  which,  if  properly  prac¬ 
tised,  requires  as  much  learning  as  do  the  crafts  of  law  or 
medicine)  thoroughly  recognized  as  one  of  the  learned  profes¬ 
sions  ? 

To  these  queries  we  engineers  cannot,  unqualifiedly,  give  an 
affirmative  reply.  In  the  first  place,  we  do  not  in  all  cases  make 
high  enough  and  absolute  enough  our  standard  of  qualifications 
for  admission  to  our  ranks.  In  the  second  place,  w^e  do  not  have 
our  forces  systematically  organized  into  a  mighty  army,  with  un¬ 
broken  front,  which  would  compel,  to  a  proper  degree,  the  admir¬ 
ation  and  respect  of  the  non-engineering  wDrld  for  the  profession 
as  a  whole.  We  have,  on  the  contrary’,  been  fighting  too  much 
upon  the  guerilla  principle,  and  have  too  often  shown  the  world 
brilliant  dashes  by  individuals,  unsupported  by  the  great  body  of 
their  fellow-fighters.  In  a  retrospective  glance  through  history, 
we  may  perhaps  trace  some  of  the  causes  which  have  prevented 
engineering  from  being  definitely  organized  as  a  learned  profession 
in  early  times.  Among  these  pauses  was  possibly  the  fact  that 
the  men  on  whom  alone,  among  the  intellectual  classes,  devolved 
the  bulk  of  the  hard  work  of  the  world’s  advancing  civilization, 
the  engineers  and  architects,  were  too  busy  even  to  cultivate 
each  other’s  acquaintance,  to  say  nothing  of  that  of  the  lazy 
kings  and  knights  and  priests,  who  were  the  leaders  of  influential 
society.  In  times  of  war  these  kings  and  knights — lazy  no  longer 
— called  upon  their  men  of  practical  science  to  build  their  roads 
and  forts  and  towers,  their  ballistas  and  their  catapults.  Thus 
arose  the  military  engineer.  He  was  far  too  important  a  man  to 
have  his  eyes  put  out,  or  to  be  walled-up  alive  in  one  of  his  own 
buttresses,  after  the  completion  of  his  first  valuable  piece  of  work, 
as  had  been  the  pleasant  experience  of  some  of  his  civil 
brethren.  He  grew  to  rank  with  other  high  officials  of  the  army 


president’s  annual  address. 


45 


which  he  helped  to  keep  in  existence,  and  organized  his  work 
after  the  methods  of  his  fellow-soldiers.  Hence  the  systematic 
education  and  training,  the  esprit  du  corps  and  high  professional 
status,  of  the  body  of  men  who  should  in  some  respects  be  the 
model  for  the  now  larger  body  of  their  lineal  descendants,  the 
civil  engineers. 

I  here  use  the  term  ‘‘  civil  engineer  ”  in  its  general,  rather  than 
its  restricted,  sense  ;  and  it  seems  to  me  that  we  Americans  should 
follow  the  practice  of  our  European  brethren  in  giving  to  the 
word  “  civil  ”  its  proper  and  original  meaning — simply  “  non-mili¬ 
tary.”  It  is  bad  enough,  in  these  days  of  friendship  and  earnest 
cooperation  between  our  government  engineers  in  both  Army  . 
and  Navy,  with  the  much  larger  body  of  those  in  civil  life,  to  have 
the  general  distinction  between  military  and  civil.  The  classifica¬ 
tion  is  not  a  lo2:ical  or  scientific  one,  as  much  of  the  work  in  these 
different  branches  is  identical.  A  military  engineer,  in  these 
times  of  wonderfully  rapid  mechanical  evolution,  must  be  a  good 
deal  of  a  machinist  and  electrician  and  aeronaut,  as  well  as  a 
digger  of  ditches  and  builder  of  forts.  Even  in  the  last  mentioned 
work  (the  one  thing  which  distinguishes  him  from  his  civil  brother, 
and  which  the  latter  is  supposed  to  know  nothing  about),  his 
knowledge  is  becoming  very  uncertain ;  for  the  conventional 
science  of  fortification,  with  its  visage  grim  of  brick  and  granite, 
seems  to  be  crumbling  into  debris  and  ashes,  from  which  the 
young  phoenix  of  mechanical  engineering  shall  spring  with  a 
shining  countenance,  bearing  in  its  lineaments  the  similitude  of 
nickel-steel. 

From  this  general  view  of  the  case,  it  would  seem  that  the  pro¬ 
fession  as  a  whole  should  designate  its  members  by  the  simple 
word  “  engineer.”  The  public  would  in  time  follow  this  example, 
but,  meanwhile,  persistent  and  organized  effort  should  be  made  to 
discourage  the  “  Americanism  ”  of  using  the  word  to  describe  the 
driver  of  a  locomotive  or  the  engiueman  of  a  factory ;  nay,  even 
the  clodhopper  who  stuffs  straw  into  the  fire-door  of  an  agricul¬ 
tural  engine,  smears  lard  upon  its  feverish  journals,  and  hangs  his 
boots  and  jacket  upon  the  safety-valve,  for  a  maximum  test 
of  the  elastic  limit  of  the  boiler-shell. 

Allowing  the  distinction  between  military  and  civil  work  to  be 
expressed  only  when  necessary,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  normal 
use  of  adjectives  as  prefixes  to  our  general  name  should  be 
simply  for  classification  into  specialties  of  practice,  as  topo- 


46  president’s  annual  address. 

graphical,  mining,  metallurgical,  mechanical,  electrical,  hydraulic, 
railway,  bridging,  architectural,  sanitary,  etc.  These  terms  are 
written  in  a  somewhat  natural  order  of  progression  from  nature 
to  art ;  but  are  not,  of  course,  in  strictly  logical  form  and  sequence. 
This  and  the  preceding  paragraphs  may  be  somewhat  in  the  way 
of  a  digression  from  my  subject,  but  are  in  sympathy  with  the 
general  idea  intended  to  be  expressed  of  fixing  a  definite  status 
for  the  man  (or  woman,  if  she  be  so  minded)  who  shall  be  called 
an  engineer.  Having  briefly  and  sketchily  traced  his  past  his¬ 
tory  and  present  position,  let  us,  following  the  motif  of  my  title, 
see  whether  the  term  “  engineer”  includes  those  of  ‘‘  scholar”  and 
•  ‘‘  gentleman.”  If  such  is  not  wholly  the  case,  how  far  should  it 
do  so,  and  how  may  it  be  made  to  ? 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  modern  engineer,  if  he  be  worthy  of 
the  name,  must  be  a  scholar  as  regards  many  important  branches 
of  knowledge.  To  have  become  this,  he  must  possess  a  trained 
intellect  and  must  have  been  through  a  course,  whether  in  col¬ 
lege,  or  office,  or  shop,  in  which  he  has  fulfilled  the  most  impor¬ 
tant  condition  of  all  scholarship,  by  learning  how  to  learn.  The 
particular  branch  of  learning  into  which  his  natural  talent,  his 
inclination,  and  the  necessities  of  his  chosen  profession  have  led 
him,  will  have  required  as  much  study  as  if  he  had,  for  a  spe¬ 
cialty,  chosen  Sanscrit,  or  archaeology,  or  astronomy,  or  Spanish 
literature. 

In  stating  the  case  thus,  I  do  not  wish  to  disparage  classical 
learning.  If  a  young  man  about  preparing  for  any  branch  of 
engineering  has  time  and  money  enough  to  take  a  classical 
course  in  addition  to  the  scientific  course,  which  is  absolutely 
essential  (if  not  at  college,  then  at  home,  or  somewhere  else),  so 
much  the  better.  The  delay  of  a  year  or  two  in  starting  upon  his 
practical  life-work  will  be  well  paid  for  by  the  increment  of  men¬ 
tal  culture  obtained,  and  by  the  additional  opportunity  for  class 
friendships,  in  after  life,  with  scholarly  men,  who  are  not  running 
exactly  in  his  own  grooves  of  thought.  If,  however,  he  can  by 
no  possibility  give  to  the  schools  all  the  time  necessary  for  both 
courses,  let  him  go  through  the  scientific  course  thoroughly, 
remembering  the  masterly  epigram  once  uttered  upon  an  occa¬ 
sion  like  this,  by  my  talented  predecessor  in  this  chair.  Prof. 
Sweet,  w’hich,  as  I  remember,  ran  thus  :  “  ’Tis  better  to  know 
what  wants  to  be  done,  and  how  to  do  it,  than  to  know  what  has 
heen  done,  and  who  did  it.”  Surely,  no  comparison  between  the 


president’s  annual  address. 


47 


study  of  practical  science  and  of  history  in  literature  could  be 
more  crisply,  yet  more  powerfully,  formulated. 

Our  embryo  engineer  should  not,  however,  take  sides  so  strongly 
in  favor  of  pure  science  as  to  ignore  entirely  the  claims  of  polite 
literature.  Too  many  of  our  young  men  who  are  faithful  stu¬ 
dents  and  earnest  workers,  but  who  are  too  poor  to  take  a  full 
college  course,  or  who,  yet  more  unfortunately,  can  take  no  course 
at  all,  beyond  the  common  school  or  academy,  are  apt  to  imbibe 
a  contempt  for  helles-leUres,  and  even,  in  some  cases,  for  the 
shade  of  Lindley  Murray  himself.  They  wish  to  be  intensely 
engineers,  and  are  willing  to  be  nothing  more,  ignoring  social 
life  and  other  pleasures  in  their  zeal  for  their  chosen  work. 

To  such  young  men  the  advice  cannot  be  too  strongly  given  : 
Do  not  liniit  your  future  happiness  and  that  of  your  friends  and 
associates  by  becoming  mental  hermits — one-sided,  unsymmetri- 
cal  characters,  with  ideas  running  in  a  single  groove.  Not  only 
for  your  social  happiness,  but  for  your  professional  advancement, 
for  your  worldly  prospects  in  wealth  and  reputation,  make  your¬ 
selves  fit  to  appear  as  educated  men  of  the  world,  not  in  the  bad 
sense  of  being  familiar  with  its  vices  and  ready  to  sneer  at  its 
homely  virtues,  but  in  the  larger  sense  of  being  ready  to  meet 
men  anywhere,  of  any  degree,  upon  their  own  ground,  familiar 
with  their  methods,  and  acquainted  with  their  ways.  For  all  this 
you  need  not  be  able  to  instruct  a  learned  Rabbi  in  decipher¬ 
ing  Hebrew  inscriptions  ;  nor  a  Harvard  professor  in  extracting 
Greek  roots ;  nor  even  an  astronomer  royal,  regarding  the  width 
and  straightness  of  the  bands  on  Mars ;  they  could  not  tell  you 
the  area  of  an  anchorage-plate  in  your  suspension  bridge,  or  the 
best  diameters  for  the  piston-rods  in  your  latest  triple-compound 
engine.  You  should  all  four,  however,  be  ready  to  meet  on 
common  ground  at  your  club,  or  in  each  other’s  drawing-rooms, 
and  be  not  wholly  at  sea  should  discussion  arise  about  Shakes¬ 
peare’s  iconoclasts ;  or  the  most-talked-of  article  in  the  last  Nine¬ 
teenth  Century  or  Forum  ;  or  as  to  how  American  was  last  week’s 
American  Order  of  Architecture,  as  exemplified  in  some  fearfully 
and  wonderfully  made  new  public  building.  For  all  this,  it  is  not 
absolutely  necessary  that  you  should  be  able  to  translate  even  a 
page  of  Homer  into  flowing  English  rhymes. 

Continuing  the  imperative  mood,  the  advice  to  our  hypothet¬ 
ical  young  man  would  be  more  definitely  formulated :  Before 
you  begin  engineering,  ground  yourself  with  a  thorough  English 


48 


president’s  annual  address. 


(if  England  or  America  be  the  home  of  your  birth  or  adoption), 
common-school  or  academical  education,  learning  as  much  of  the 
classics  and  of  modern  languages  as  time  and  circumstances  may 
permit.  For  your  professional  training,  enter  the  best  technical 
school,  college,  or  university  available,  the  larger  and  more  fully 
equipped  it  is,  the  better.  Adapt  your  personal  course  of  study 
especially  to  the  branch  of  engineering  which  you  intend  to  follow, 
bringing  in  as  much  of  the  classics  as  may  come,  without  hamper¬ 
ing  your  science.  If  your  time  for  languages,  dead  or  alive,  is 
limited,  choose  German,  French,  Latin,  Greek,  in  the  order  named, 
unless  you  need  Spanish,  Italian,  etc.,  for  local  reasons.  If  the 
curriculum  of  your  school  does  not  include  ample  practical  work 
in  field,  shop,  mine,  or  laboratory  (according  as  your  future  work 
may  lie),  take  care  to  have  had  enough  such  practice,  either 
before,  during,  or  after  your  school  course,  as  to  amount  to 
three  or  four  solid  years  of  such  work,  before  you  announce 
yourself  as  a  practising  engineer.  In  addition  to  this,  do  not 
neglect  your  commercial  education,  if  possible  spending  such 
time  in  store,  bank,  or  counting-house  as  will  give  you  a  general 
idea  of  accounts  and  commercial^law.  In  these  days  an  engineer 
must  be  a  man  of  affairs,  and  must  be  something  of  a  merchant 
and  lawyer,  as  well  as  a  scientist.  With  all  this,  keep  in  mind,  as 
before  indicated,  the  great  importance  of  writing  and  speaking 
your  own  language  correctly,  and  of  attaining  at  least  a  cursory 
knowledge  of  general  literature,  and  something  of  the  shibbo¬ 
leths  of  cultivated  society. 

So  much  for  the  engineer  as  a  scholar.  Answering  a  ques¬ 
tion  propounded  earlier  in  this  essay,  I  will  express  the  opinion 
that  the  best  modern  engineering  courses  of  study  do  include  such  * 
scholarship  ;  and  that  the  great  majority  of  studious  men  who 
have  been  fortunate  enough  to  graduate  therein,  with  their  cul¬ 
ture  supplemented  by  a  few  years  of  active  professional  life, 
whether  as  manufacturers,  consulting  engineers,  or  what  not,  may 
lay  claim  to  the  true  scholarship,  which  consists  of  a  general 
knowledge  of  the  world  at  large,  combined  with  such  particular 
knowledge  of,  and  experience  in,  their  chosen  vocation,  as  to 
make  it  a  success.  That  minority  who  have  not  reached  the  ideal 
just  pictured,  though  perhaps  more  or  less  eminent  technically, 
are  either  men  who  have  fought  their  way  up  through  early  dis¬ 
advantages,  or  men  who,  having  had  the  advantages,  have  a 
natural  distaste  for  the  refinements  and  amenities  of  intellectual 


pbesident’s  annual  address.  49 

and  social  life.  If  eminent,  they  are  so  in  spite  of  this  neglect, 
not  because  of  it.  Happily,  our  modern  technical  schools,  a 
course  in  which  is  now  considered  almost  essential  as  a  prepara¬ 
tion  for  any  branch  of  engineering,  are  creating  a  new  and  higher 
standard  than  did  or  could  exist  even  a  score  or  two  of  years 
ago,  especially  in  the  case  of  mechanical  engineering.  Many  of 
us  now  only  in  middle  life  can  remember  the  times  when  this 
branch  of  the  profession  had  hardly  begun  to  be  a  science,  and 
but  very  crudely  was  an  art.  Not  so  very  long  since  our  machin¬ 
ery  was  designed,  empirically,  by  the  machinists  (or  white-smiths, 
as  the  English  termed  them),  who  were  to  build  and  operate  it. 
A  mere  shop  experience  was  considered  sufficient  education  for 
these  designers,  and  the  resulting  machines  showed  their  father¬ 
hood.  Their  chief  pride  was  to  be  “  practical,”  and  they  vied 
with  each  other  in  scoffing  at  theory  and  at>  science.  Unfortun¬ 
ately,  some  of  these  men  are  alive  yet,  and  are  still  at  work. 
Mechanical  engineering  as  a  science  has,  however,  sprung  up  like 
a  young  giant  ready  for  the  fray.  Its  influence  has  pervaded  all 
other  divisions  of  the  profession,  until  the  civil,”  the  mining, 
and  the  electrical  engineer  are  largely  dependent  upon  its  meth¬ 
ods  and  its  men.  The  scholarship  which,  but  comparatively  a 
few  years  ago,  was  monopolized  by  the  older  branches  of  the 
engineering  family,  has  become  necessary  to  all ;  and  the  time 
will  doubtless  soon  come  when  nobody  will  attempt  to  practise 
without  having  enjoyed  the  rigid  training  and  culture  of  the 
schools,  or,  at  any  rate,  such  private  training  as  will  pass  their 
examinations. 

Having  seen  that  an  engineer  who  is  worthy  of  the  name  gen¬ 
erally  is,  and  always  should  be,  to  a  greater  or  less  degree,  a 
scholar,  we  come  to  the  more  delicate  and  difficult  question  sug¬ 
gested  by  the  title  of  this  address :  Is  he,  or  should  he  be,  a  gen¬ 
tleman,  in  the  highest  and  most  perfect  sense  of  the  word  ?  So 
embarrassing  is  this  matter  that  I  feel  loath  to  speak  of  it,  and  do 
so  only  with  the  hope  of  adding  my  mite  of  influence  in  favor  of 
the  good  work,  which  is  already  in  progress,  of  elevating  the  tone 
and  standard  of  the  'personnel  of  our  ^noble  profession  to  the 
highest  possible  degree,  intellectually,  morally,  physically,  and 
socially. 

To  the  second  portion  of  the  query  propounded  in  the  last 
paragraph,  we  shall  all  without  doubt  unhesitatingly  say  yes ! 
No  standard  of  gentility,  no  patent  of  nobility,  can  be  too  high 


50 


PRESIDENTS  ANNUAL  ADDRESS. 


for  a  profession  which  leads  the  civilization  of  the  world,  and 
which  is  probably  destined,  in  the  not  too  far  oiff  future,  to  mark 
out  pathways  of  material  and  moral  advancement  in  the  life  of 
the  race,  which  are  beyond  all  our  present  conceptions.  Taking 
a  lower  and  merely  selfish  view  of  the  case,  there  can  be  no  ques¬ 
tion  about  the  great  advantage  which  will  accrue  to  the  engineer,  in 
common  with  the  architect,  the  lawyer,  or  the  physician,  from  the 
ability  to  meet  his  wealthy  and  cultivated  clients  upon  their  own 
level ;  to  excel  them,  if  auy thing,  in  the  intelligent  appreciation  of 
their  mutual  affairs,  and  in  the  amenities  of  social  intercourse. 
This  social  aspect  of  professional  work,  and  its  great  import¬ 
ance  in  furthering  his  success  in  life,  not  only  in  the  way  of 
pleasure,  but  of  profit  and  reputation,  is  too  often  ignored  by 
big-brained  young  men  who  are  full  of  scientific  zeal,  but  who 
have  not  learned  sufficient  practical  respect  for  the  ways  of  the 
world. 

Answering  last  the  first  portion  of  our  query,  we  may  all  con¬ 
gratulate  ourselves  that  engineers  as  a  body  rank  high  as  gentle¬ 
men  the  world  over.  There  are,  of  course,  exceptions,  as  there  are 
in  all  vocations,  whether  with  priest  or  doctor,  counsellor  or 
gowned  judge.  Happily,  the  tendency  of  an  engineering  educa¬ 
tion  is  to  refine,  rather  than  coarsen  ;  and  this  is,  I  think,  the  case 
with  the  study  of  science  in  any  of  its  forms.  As  we  have  seen 
that  the  very  name  of  engineer  is  apt  to  include  and  carry  with 
it  a  fair  degree  of  scholarship,  so  this  scholarship  carries  with  it 
and  includes  a  certain  inherent  gentility,  just  as  does  scholarship 
in  other  and  quite  different  branches  of  learning.  Engineering 
has,  however,  the  advantage  enjoyed  by  other  purely  scientific 
studies ;  it  commands  an  absorbing  interest  in  its  devotees  which 
entices  away  from  frivolity  and  dissipation,  and  the  dealing  with 
pure  truth  and  with  the  resistless  logic  of  nature  leads  to  veracity 
and  accuracy  of  character  and  speech.  Who,  that  has  mingled 
freely  in  engineering  circles,  has  not  noticed  the  comparatively 
high  moral  tone  and  solidity  of  character  prevalent  in  their  per¬ 
sonnel  ?  Temperance  in  all  things  is  in  the  very  nature  of  the 
engineer’s  daily  line  of  tii ought.  He  is  too  much  accustomed  to 
trace  carefully  every  effect  to  its  cause,  and  to  modify  his  causes 
that  his  desired  ends  may  be  accomplished,  to  fall  an  easy  prey 
to  dissipation  of  any  sort. 

So  firmly  do  I  believe  in  the  elevating  tendencies  of  our  profes¬ 
sion  that  I  might  well  liave  added  to  mv  title  the  words  “  and  a 

o  •/ 


president’s  annual  address. 


51 


moralist.”  I^ot  only  do  the  studies  of  the  votaries  of  science  tend 
toward  scholarship  and  gentility,  but  toward  morality ;  and  these 
attributes  act  and  re-act  upon  each  other.  Science  is  truly  the 
handmaid  of  religion  ;  ‘‘  her  ways  are  ways  of  pleasantness  ;  ”  she 
seeketh  but  the  things  that  are  true,  ‘‘  that  are  lovely,  and  of  good 
report.” 

Assuming  and  believing  that  the  status  of  engineers  as  a  body 
is  good,  and  that  on  the  whole  we  rank  before  the  world  with 
other  learned  professions,  the  question  arises  just  as  it  does  with 
one  of  our  “ perfected  ”  machines):  How  can  we  make  it  better?” 
How  can  we  outrank  all  the  others,  and  make  ourselves  fit  to 
stand  before  the  world  so  that  it  will  acknowledge  us  as  the  lead¬ 
ers  of  its  advancing  civilization  and  large  factors  in  it,  as  openly 
doing  what  we  really  have  been  doing  suh  rosa  through  all  the 
passing  centuries  ?  How  shall  we  make  it  consider  us,  w'hen 
in  properly  organized  form,  a  body  so  wise  and  powerful  as  to  be 
fit  advisers  not  only  in  matters  of  applied  physics,  but  in  social 
science,  in  commercial  economics,  and  perhaps  even  in  politics 
itself  (if  that  subtle  profession  is  not  killed  out  by  that  time)  ? 

And  why  hot  such  added  functions?  They  fall  within  the 
line  of  thought  which  I  have  projected — a  line  reaching  from 
before  the  dawn  of  history  to  a  bright  era  in  the  future,  when  the 
affairs  of  men  shall  be  run  on  the  engineer’s  time-table ;  that  is, 
by  the  rules  of  common  sense.  This,  being  interpreted,  doth 
mean  simply  that  we  shall  try  to  win  nature’s  gifts  by  using 
nature’s  laws,  not  by  controverting  them. 

Answering  the  questions  above  propounded,  as  to  how  we  can 
in  all  ways  elevate  our  professional  standard,  I  will  suggest  that 
the  best  way  is  to  have  a  standard,  and  then  to  elevate  it.  To 
do  this  we  must  have  such  general  organization  as  will  give  con¬ 
certed  action,  and  then  command  general  respect.  Furthermore, 
this  standard  should  have  some  sort  of  a  legal  status,  at  any 
rate  as  regards  its  minimum  limitations.  Just  as  firmly  as  I  be¬ 
lieve  that  no  doctor,  nor  architect,  nor  lawyer,  nor  chemist,  should 
be  allowed  to  invite  fees  from  the  public,  without  first  passing  an 
examination  and  receiving  a  degree  from  some  reputable  school, 
which,  in  its  turn,  should  be  subject  to  examination  and  regula¬ 
tion  by  the  general  government  as  much  as  should  a  national 
bank,  so  do  I  verily  believe  that  the  practising  engineer  should 
be  authorized  to  be  such  by  some  higher  and  more  uniformly 
acting  power  than  his  own  choice.  Hot  only  do  we  want  such 


52 


president’s  annual  address. 


regulation  for  the  protection  of  the  public,  but  more  particu¬ 
larly  for  our  own  protection,  that  we  may  not  suffer  from  the 
charlatans  and  quacks  who  infest  our  ranks,  with  symbols 
ending  with  an  E  appended  to  their  names.  We  may  not  yet  be 
ready  for  any  such  system  of  unification,  but  it  seems  to  me  that 
we  should  huild  toward  something  of  the  kind  in  the  future,  as 
the  surest  way  of  fixing  our  status  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  as  be¬ 
longing  to  one  of  the  definite  and  recognized  learned  professions. 
Should  such  a  system  once  be  established,  there  would  be  no 
more  chance  of  a  reversion  to  the  present  systemless  style  than 
tliere  is  of  our  American  national  banks  changing  back  to  the 
old-fashioned  “wild-cat”  banks  of  forty  years  ago. 

In  the  meantime,  whilst  we  as  a  body  are  educating  ourselves 
up  to,  and  preparing  for,  some  scheme  looking  toward  more  unity, 
power,  and  usefulness,  how  shall  the  average  tone  of  the  profes¬ 
sion  be  improved  by  the  cultivation  of  the  individual  ?  Here  the 
advice  regarding  the  Scotchman  in  the  story  may  be  followed : 
“  Catch  him  young.”  The  rising  generation  of  engineers  must  be 
trained  to  higher  ideals  than  has  been  any  preceding  one,  and 
this  is  largely  the  work  of  the  schools. 

We  have,  in  this  country,  many  excellent  technical  colleges. 
Generally  speaking,  their  standard  of  scholarship  is  high,  their 
methods  thorough.  Their  chief  fault  is,  perhaps,  lack  of  uni¬ 
formity  with  each  other,  in  certain  things  where  standard  methods 
of  study  and  experiment  would  be  desirable ;  and,  more  impor¬ 
tant  yet  by  far,  some  standard  regarding  the  conferring  of  degrees. 
The  evils  due  to  these  sins  of  omission  may  perhaps  be  remedied 
by  some  system  of  official  conference  between  their  respective 
faculties,  some  intellectual  “  pooling  of  their  issues,”  so  to  speak. 
Not  only  would  this  be  productive  of  uniformity  where  uniformity 
might  be  an  advantage,  but  it  would  improve  the  average  char¬ 
acter  of  the  schools  themselves,  and  tone  up  the  weaker  ones  by 
exciting  a  spirit  of  more  active  emulation. 

We  have  assumed  that  our  coming  engineers,  many  of  whom 
are  now  in  our  colleges  and  “  institutes  ”  training  for  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  brain  and  eye  and  hand,  will  there  find  all  needful  helps 
to  the  scholarship  which  is  to  prepare  them  for  their  calling. 
They  will  there  be  trained,  also,  to  some  extent,  in  manners  and 
personal  habits,  both  by  precept  and  example,  especially  those  of 
them  who,  by  reason  of  poverty  or  geographical  isolation,  have 
not  had  the  early  advantages  enjoyed  by  some  of  their  more 


president’s  annual  address.  ‘53 

Chesterfieldian  fellow-students.  Kecurring  once  more  to  the 
second  natural  attribute  of  an  engineer  mentioned  in  the  title, 
we  maj  ask  :  Do  these  schools  establish  and  maintain  the  high 
standard  which  they  should  do  in  regard  to  good  breeding,  ele¬ 
gant  manners,  tasteful  costume,  and  those  graces  and  accom¬ 
plishments  which,  as  before  intimated,  will  so  much  aid  any 
professional  man  in  gaining  the  desirable  prizes  of  life  ?  The 
answer  must  be,  that  our  civil  schools  do  not,  to  the  extent  they 
might,  provide  this  culture  as  yet. 

In  this  respect  they  should  follow  some  of  the  methods  of  gov¬ 
ernmental  military  and  naval  schools,  whose  curriculum  includes 
not  only  a  rigid  technical  and  professional  course  of  study, 
mingled  with  enough  of  classical  and  general  literature  to  culti¬ 
vate  the  mental  graces,  and  a  superabundance  of  military  drill 
and  other  systematic  physical  culture  for  strength  and  grace  of 
body,  but  also  instruction  and  practise  in  dancing,  in  dress,  and 
in  the  nameless  other  social  arts  which  make  for  politeness  and 
refinement.  Nor  do  we  see  that  attention  paid  to  these  matters 
in  any  way  cuts  short  the  more  severe  culture  which  is  the  chief 
aim  of  education.  To  disprove  this  we  need  but  think  of  the 
long  list  of  names,  which  it  would  be  invidious  to  specify,  among 
the  regularly  educated  army  and  navy  men  of  this  country  and 
Europe  who  have  become  distinguished  in  science  and  in  general 
engineering. 

We  cannot  take  all  our  young  engineers  from  cultivated  homes 
and  teach  them  only  technics.  Many  are  blessed  with  such 
homes,  but  many  others  must  come  from  orphan  asylum,  from 
factory,  from  distant  farm.  We  are  all,  in  a  certain  sense,  chil¬ 
dren  of  the  people.  Class  distinctions  are  gradually  disappear¬ 
ing  not  only  in  America  but  in  Europe  and  the  Islands  of  the 
Sea.  Notably  is  this  the  case  in  what  we  may  almost  term  our 
sister  republic  of  England.  The  ultimate  social  distinction  will 
simply  be  between  gentlemen  and  non-gentlemen.  Only  the  men 
with  sufficient  “  voltage  ”  of  brain-power  will  survive  in  the 
struggle  for  a  properly  standardized  engineering  education.  If 
they  happen  to  need  it,  why  should  they  not  incidentally  re¬ 
ceive,  as  they  pass  through  the  mill,  the  polish  of  gentility  ? 

It  is  an  observed  fact,  that  many  a  mere  “  cub,”  drawn  from  his 
lair  in  backwoods  or  mine  by  some  benevolent  congressman,  and 
entered  at  West  Point  or  Annapolis,  has,  if  showing  brains  enough 
to  go  through  at  all,  been  turned  out  a  scholar  and  a  gentleman. 


54 


PRESIDENT  S  ANNUAL  ADDRESS. 


He,  throughout  his  after  life,  mingles  with  ladies  and  gentlemen, 
is  one  with  his  fellow-officers,  for  nowhere  is  esprit  du  corps 
stronger  than  in  army  and  navy  circles.  Let  us  do  likewise  with 
any  engineering  cubs  that  we  may  catch.  Let  our  schools  imitate 
successful  methods  wherever-  found.  Let  them  throw  such  a 
mantle  of  refinement  over  each  of  these  young  men  as  not  only  to 
conceal,  but  to  absorb  his  cubbishness.  Make  him  not  alone 
truthful,  temperate,  scientific,  skilful,  business-like,  scholarly  ;  but 
healthy,  erect,  graceful,  socially  accomplished,  possessing  “  man¬ 
ner,”  as  well  as  manners.  Give  him  a  love  for  moral  and  physi¬ 
cal  cleanness — morally  a  cleanness  shining  out  from  soul  and 
mind,  and  physically  one  which  shall  be  manifested  not  only 
upon  his  face  and  upon  his  shoes,  but  shall  reach  even  to  the  tips 
of  his  fingers.  Give  him  a  horror  of  careless  pronunciation  and 
orthography,  but  such  a  practical  respect  for  etiquette  and  fash¬ 
ion  as  will  cause  him  to  use  either  at  will,  as  an  expedient  tool, 
while,  perhaps,  contemning  it  theoretically.  Teach  him  that 
there  is  raiment  fit  for  the  morning,  and  raiment  meet  for  the 
evening ;  or,  at  any  rate,  that  he  may  find  chances  to  make  some 
pleasant  hostess  happier  by  assuming  such  a  proposition  to  be 
true,  whether  it  be  strictly  logical  or  not.  Search  the  effects  of 
a  youth  thus  trained  for  personal^  and  well-used  implements  of  his 
calling,  and  expect  to  find  not  only  tape-line  and  calipers,  but 
a  thumbed-up  volume  of  Shakespeare  or  Emerson  ;  not  only  a 
two-foot  rule  and  an  aneroid,”  but  a  card-case  and  the  ac¬ 
cessories  of  a  dainty  toilet. 

The  general  and  social  culture  which  our  schools  should  pro¬ 
vide  for  these  young  men  cannot  be  a  matter  of  precept  only, 
but  must  be  one  of  example  also.  There  must  be  a  high  stand¬ 
ard  among  professors  and  instructors  as  well  as  among  students 
— not  only  in  scholarship,  but  in  manners  and  morals.  While 
speaking  again  of  morals,  as  among  the  attributes  of  a  gentleman, 
I  fain  would  utter  an  earnest  plea  for  the  nurture  and  cultivation 
of  that  knightly  sense  of  personal  honor  which  is  regarded  all  too 
lightly  in  the  money-getting  strife  and  turmoil  of  our  modern 
commercial  life,  but  which  possibly  "we  may  find  more  prevalent 
in  military  than  in  civil  society.  Such  honor  is  above  all  bribe¬ 
taking,  and  should  be  sacredly  held  as  a  part  of  the  capital  of 
every  engineer.  It  should  keep  him  (if  for  his  reputation’s  sake 
only)  infinitely  above  the  consideration  of  such  loot,  for  example, 
as  commission  upon  material,  the  sale  of  which  might  be  affected 


president’s  annual  address. 


by  his  professional  opinion  thereupon.  It  should  lead  engineer¬ 
ing  influence  to  reform  our  wretched  system  of  expert  testimony, 
wherein  two  reputable  scientific  men  are  paid  by  interested  clients 
to  draw  two  opposite  sets  of  conclusions  from  the  same  premises, 
instead  of  being  paid  by  the  courts  to  tell  the  truth,  as  should 
be  the  case,  and  will  be — when  we  engineers  make  it  so.  This 
high  honor,  and  the  gentle  courtesy  by  which  it  should  be  mani¬ 
fested,  are  but  the  “  applied  science  ”  of  that  Golden  Hide  which 
was  preached  by  the  Greatest  of  Gentlemen,  in  Galilee,  eighteen 
centuries  ago.  It  merely  causes  us  to  treat  all  men  and  all 
women  as  we  ourselves  would  be  served  by  them.  Shall  not  our 
schools  include  it,  more  definitely  than  now,  among  the  things 
which  it  is  good  to  learn  ? 

Catch  we  thus  young  the  rising  generation,  thus  lead  them  and 
guide  them  toward  the  highest  possible  ideals  of  morality,  science, 
work,  scholarship,  and  gentlemanhood,  meanwhile  organizing  our 
forces  by  standardizing  our  methods,  and  by  federating  our  socie¬ 
ties,  great  and  small,  for  unity  of  action  in  matters  where  unity 
may  seem  desirable  (but  retaining  their  autonomy  for  local  and 
departmental  objects),  and  the  early  half  of  the  twentieth  century 
will  see  and  recognize  a  noble  guild,  girdling  the  earth  both 
intellectually  and  materially,  whose  power  and  influence  will 
lead  mankind  forward,  yet  more  than  in  the  long  past,  toward 
all  that  makes  for  prosperity,  for  purity,  for  pleasure,  and  for 
peace. 


